Tag: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JayWood Shares Swaggering, Genre-Defying “ASSUMPTIONS”

Jeremy Haywood-Smith is a Winnipeg-born, Montréal-based, singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind behind the acclaimed, boundary pushing project JayWood. Though he was nominated for a Polaris Music Prize, the Canadian artist currently has a day job as a postal worker, which is arguably the least interesting thing about him.

Haywood-Smith’s third JayWood album Leo Negro is slated for a September 5, 2025 release through Captured Tracks. Much like previously released tracks “UNTITLED (Swirl)” and his collaboration with Tune-Yards, “BIG TINGS,” Leo Negro will further cement his reputation for refusing to be easily pigeonholed.

The Canadian artist explains that the album’s title ” . . .came from the main concept of the album which is identity. I asked myself the question of ‘What are some things that make me who I am, no matter what changes occur in life?’ and funnily enough, I was getting really into astrology at the time due to fact that 70% of my friends are queer femmes. I was trying to understand what it means to be a Leo. On the other hand, I’m moving through life as a black man in spaces that don’t always understand me or will try to categorize me.”

He adds, “I know the main identifier for Leos is that they’re super confident and massive social magnets and leaders, but in recent years, I’ve had a harder time leaning into that specific energy, so I started to just dismantle the idea of confidence and leadership by doing somewhat of the opposite. I started to get more vulnerable and share more things about myself: insecurities, fears, anxieties, my scarier truths and my experiences as a black person. Through that, I weirdly started to feel a little more confident. Which brings me to my last point about the title. I now live in Montreal and one thing I realized while trying to learn the language is that the descriptions of things are at the end. For example ‘black cat’ would be ‘chat noir,’ and if I look at my album title, it kinda translates to ‘black confidence’ in my mind.”

Leo Negro‘s latest single “ASSUMPTIONS” is a mind-melting, defiantly genre-agnostic track that sees the Montréal-based artist meshing a swaggering and braggadocio-fueled hip-hop production and neo-soul while subtly hinting at Pharrell‘s “Happy.” While seemingly recalling Tyler, the Creator, Stereolab and Men I Trust among others, “ASSUMPTIONS” showcases a mischievously forward-thinking producer and songwriter, who can pair social commentary and deep introspection within a catchy, deceptively fun bop.

“‘ASSUMPTIONS’ feels like it’s giving myself permission to step into some new sonic territory,” Haywood-Smith explains. “It’s fun and playful while still being pretty focused and lyrically consistent, which is new for me. It’s also one of the funniest songs I’ve ever written. It’s literally about my crippling imposter syndrome but at the same time, I’m staking my claim as a solid artist and a producer.”

Directed by Trent Wayne, the accompanying video is a playful, unpredictable mix of cartoons and live action footage at an equally cartoon colored party, in which he plays his new song. Much like the accompanying song, the video touches on feelings of imposter syndrome, feeling under appreciated yet knowing deep down that you’re fucking dope.

The video’s director, Trent Wayne, while speaking on the production said “JayWood set the tone for us—playful, unpredictable, and musically rich— making a great foundation for the video. Inspired by the song’s genre-blending, we built a narrative to match: starting in a comically chaotic party scene, drifting into a Yo Gabba Gabba!-inspired graveyard, and featuring a cartoon version of Jay performing created by Pete Though, which was sent through a VCR for added analog grit. Our production designer, Sophia Kotowski, built a functional CD-player gravestone that became a psychedelic centerpiece. Collaborating with Captured Tracks to spotlight innovative artists like JayWood is a real privilege for our team.”

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Franck Harois Shares Breezy “Au Rhythme Du Vent”

Franck Harois is French singer/songwriter and producer, who over the course of his 30+ year career has created music with a fiercely DIY ethos. Understandably, that has allowed, the French artist the ability to create freely and without compromise.

Harois’ latest single “Au Rhythme du Vent,” is a breezy bit of electro pop anchored around twinkling melodic synths, arpeggiated bass synths, bursts of squiggling of guitar and a remarkably catchy hook serving as a lush bed for the French artist’s dreamily plaintive delivery. The song sees Harois walking a tightrope between danceable Depeche Mode-like New Wave/goth and radio friendly pop.

Directed by Harois, the accompanying video for “Au Rhythme du Vent” was shot on the sun-dappled shores and forests of Biscarrosse, Bordeaux, France. The video emphasizes the escapist nature of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Hand Habits Shares Optimistic “Wheel of Change”

Meg Duffy is a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who over the past decade has spent the bulk of the past decade on the road with acclaimed artist Perfume Genius and as a solo artist, […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising London Outfit World News Shares Jangling and Anthemic “Don’t Want To Know”

Rising London-based post punk outfit World News — brothers Alex Evans (vocals, guitar) and Rory Evans (bass), along with Malte Henning (drums) and Jack Tolman (rhythm guitar) — can trace their origins back to 2018. The Evans Brothers, performing under the name Tinman cut their teeth in Brighton’s grassroots scene, relentlessly chasing opening slots in that city’s busy music scene.

Following a case of badly mistaken identity in which concert-goers arrived expecting an Austrian DJ of the same name — and a chance meeting with Malte Henning at a local Pizza Express, the band, rebranded as the extremely difficult to Google, World News.

The band, now known as World News were quickly gaining momentum, having sold out their first London area headlining show at The Shacklewell Arms when the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a halt. The band quickly established a sound inspired by 70s and 80s post-punk, indie rock and shoegaze, blending atmospheric guitar riffs with seductive melodies and a penchant for rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses, drawing comparisons to The Smiths, The Clash and Dire Straits among others.

Their debut, 2020’s Job and Money EP was released at their lowest point — COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and was deeply informed by personal experiences: heartbreak, night shifts, desperately hustling to survive and the claustrophobia of living in a windowless London room.

Fueled by restlessness, disillusionment, impatience and yearning for more, the London-based quartet have been busy the last few years, releasing over a dozen singles and three EPs while remaining committed to a firmly held DIY ethos. That busy period included last year, which saw them releasing two EP’s Escape and Mindsnap, along with the addition of Jack Tollman (rhythm guitar). Escape EP saw the band expanding on their now, signature jangling sound. Mindsnap dove into darker, much more gothic territory and marked the first bit of material cowritten by The Evans Brothers.

The rising London-based outfit closed out last year receiving coverage from Stereogum, SPIN, The Fader and KEXP, as well as sold-out shows at London’s The Lexington and Piano’s. Building upon a growing national and international profile, the members of World News are looking forward to releasing their highly-anticipated full-length debut.

Recorded at London-based RAK Studios, the rising quartet’s latest single “Don’t Want To Know” sees the band firmly cementing a sound that immediately recalls Boy, October and The Unforgettable Fire-era U2: jangling, reverb-soaked guitars, driving rhythms, rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses paired with earnest, yearning vocals.

Directed by Teddy Hansen, the accompanying video for “Don’t Want To Know” focuses on the band’s Alex Evans as he rapidly goes through a series of costume changes that shows the band’s frontman going through different scenarios — some worse than others.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Activity Share Eerily Atmospheric “Heavy Breathing”

Acclaimed Brooklyn-based post punk outfit Activity — currently, Grooms‘ Travis Johnson (vocals, guitar), Bri DiGiola (bass), Russian Baths‘ Jess Rees and their newest member The Pains of Being Pure at Heart‘s and Peel Dream Magazine‘s Brian Alvarez — will be releasing their third album, the Jeff Berner-produced A Thousand Years In Another Way on Friday through Western Vinyl. 

The ten-song album sees the Brooklyn-based outfit crafting a blend of experimental rock, electronics and found sounds with a sense of paranoia, desperate flickers of hope and a warped reality. Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Berner, the band manipulated sounds and played with room acoustics to create a feeling that’s disorientating and uneasy — like the air is thick and the walls are listening. 

Coming out of a period of increased uncertainty, the Brooklyn-based quartet — then Johnson, Rees DiGiola and former drummer Steven Levine — pieced the album together from various fragments, including clipped samples, looping guitar lines and spectral melodies. Johnson, Rees and DiGioia share vocal and writing duties, shaping material that feels both deeply personal and strangely alien. Throughout the album, there’s a sense that things could shift or fall apart at any second — nothing says one thing for long. 

In the lead up to the album’s release later this week, I wrote about two of the album’s previously released singles:

  • Album opening track “In Another Way” is a brooding and uneasy track that captures the captures an alienated and painfully lonely narrator’s desperate desire to connect with someone while struggling with the chaos and uncertainty within and without. According to the band’s Johnson, the album’s first single is “a way of letting off a bunch of aggression, rage and resentment at things not being the way they hold be, both personal and global (wishing things were ‘another way’), and feeling completely important about it, except when playing the song.” 

  • “Scissors,” the album’s second and latest single is a trance-inducing and decidedly trip-hop inspired song featuring swirling, atmospheric synths, bursts of feedback-driven shoegazer guitars and skittering, reverb-soaked beats serving as a brooding and menacing bed for Jess Rees’ dreamy delivery. “The song is about being intentionally reckless and breaking things apart, knowing you’re doing it. About not being precious, and digging into that pile of parts inside and finding a better way with what you already have,” the band’s Rees says, while adding, “I was listening to Beak> a lot at the time.”

A Thousand Years In Another Way‘s third and final pre-release single “Heavy Breathing” is a brooding and uneasy tune that recalls Depeche Mode‘s “Never Let Me Down Again,” anchored around a glistening and looping guitar line, glitchy and skittering beats and eerily atmospheric synths serving as lush bed for Johnson’s achingly plaintive delivery.

The band’s Travis Johnson says, “The song started off as this very quiet somber lullaby type thing until a friend suggested we ‘go Duran Duran’ with it. Not sure we pulled that off whatsoever but what it turned into felt right. I don’t really want to get into what the song is actually about so I’ll just say it’s to do with wishing things had been better for someone than they were.”

The accompanying video was directed by Yasmeen Night, who says “‘Heavy Breathing’ was a song that really spoke to me. There was a theme of constant movement that I felt in the music that had to make it into the visual. I was so happy when I found out the band was on board to do some stop-motion animation for the video. I expected them to run after explaining how many hours and frames of photos were involved, but they were just as excited as I was. Between the time-lapse shots and the stop motion, I think we took roughly 10,000 individual frames that were then edited into the video. There’s also this concept of playing with time – slowing down seconds and speeding up hours – combined with a metaphor for running away from or conceding to what you fear.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: 802 Shares Glittering and Rousingly Anthemic “H.I.T.S.”

At one point, Andreas “Slowoff” Asingh was considered one of the most critically acclaimed electronic artists in Denmark, working with internationally renowned artists like Raekwon while touring the world.

Eventually, life’s twist and turns took Asingh back to his roots, the Danish countryside of Mols Bjerge. Back in 2022, Asingh met Emil Sørensen and Kristian Holbæk, two young dudes making names for themselves in the country’s underground metal scene. When the trio started 802, they weren’t an obvious musical match; but they bonded over their desire to create a unique sound that meshes elements of classic heavy metal, hazy shoegazer texture and ghostly synth pop with unashamedly catchy melodies. According to the band, the 802 world is ruled by musical anarchy and is a place for headbangers and pop lovers to unite. 

The trio’s first ever live show was at 2023’s New Colossus Festival New Colossus Festival, which I actually managed to catch. And since then the Danish outfit has released a small handful of singles that have received attention across Denmark and globally: Their first two, “My Girl” and “22 (Velvet Vampire)” were featured in award-winning horror shorts.

Their third single, last year’s “1986,” saw the Danish trio firmly cementing their sound: Dense layers of crunchy metal riffage and thunderous drumming that brings Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets-era Metallica to mind paired with twinkling and atmospheric synths that may remind shoegazers of Chicago‘s Lightfoils, BLACKSTONE RNGRS, Hong Kong‘s Lucid Express and Montréal‘s Bodywash and some rousingly anthemic, shout-along worthy hooks and choruses.

The trio then took their hook-driven synthesis of metal, shoegaze and pop to some of Scandinavia’s biggest festivals, including Copenhell and Roskilde. Adding to a big year, the trio received New Artist of the Year and New Live Artist of the Year nominations at the Den Hårde Tone, Denmark’s metal awards, winning a New Artist of the Year award.

Building upon the growing buzz surrounding the Danish metal outfit, they closed out 2024 with “Princess,” which saw the band pairing Metallica-like chug with glittering synth arpeggios and rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses in what may arguably be their most dance floor friendly song to date.

“H.I.T.S.,” the Danish trio’s fifth single sees the band pairing Metallica and Def Leppard-like power chord bombast with woozily futuristic synths, their uncannily unerring knack for rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses and dreamily yearning melodies. While furthering the sound that has garnered international attention, the Danish trio have managed to consistently craft material that hits hard and is remarkably accessible.

“Even though the world is fucked, you can still believe in the good. Believe that there is a hole in the sky somewhere, where light and good karma are just waiting to pour out and defeat the evil,” 802’s Andreas Asingh says. “802 is a mixture of the dark and the light – the outsider who wants to be part of the community. It’s a constant dynamic that we celebrate in ‘H.I.T.S.'”

Directed by Casper Balslev, the accompanying video for “H.I.T.S.” cements the song’s overarching theme, with a visual battle of good versus evil centered around a kidnapper and torturer and an abused victim, a car and rope. In the end, karma wins out.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: DVTR Returns with an Incisive Ripper Tackling Colorism and Racism

French Canadian JOVM mainstays DVTR —  Le Couleur‘s Laurence G-Do a.k.a. Demi Lune and Gazoline‘s,  Kandle‘s Xavier Caféine‘s and Gab Bouchard‘s JC Tellier, a.k.a. Jean Divorce — burnt up the Canadian indie scene with the release of their debut EP, 2023’s BONJOUR. The EP amassed a plethora of rapturous reviews, landed on a number of Best of 2023 lists and earned the duo the first batch of a growing number of awards in Québec.

Building upon that momentum of the previous year, the duo released an expanded edition of their debut EP BONJOUR (BIS), which featured a couple of bonus tracks.

The Montrealers supported the original and expanded editions of BONJOUR EP with a frenetic and whirlwind world tour over the past couple of years, which has featured sets across the club and festival circuit in Asia, Mexico, Germany and Québec. They’re currently in the middle of an extensive bit of touring across France.

During this remarkably busy period, the duo released a live album on VHS (!) and added more awards to their already crowded mantle — the 2025 Breakout Artist of the Year at the GAMIQ Gala earlier this year.

And they’ve still managed to release new material. They began this year with “Né pour flâner (Born to loiter),” a song that further cements the duo’s uncanny knack for mosh pit friendly, catchy hooks, punchily delivered vocals and furious synth and guitar riffage. 

Cementing their reputation for restless and frenetic creativity, the duo return with “Couleur peau (Your Next Token Asian Friend),” arguably one of the more defiant, feisty and perhaps somewhat straightforward punk songs of a growing catalog of breakneck rippers. The song sees the duo happily spitting on and trampling the outdated, ridiculous French concept of couleur peau (“skin color”), a term that according to the band only ever refers to white or beige skin. While calling out colorism, the song is also an incisive criticism of performative and wishy washy White liberals that sees the song’s narrator ready to cash in on White guilt. I’ll be your token Asian pal– if you ante up, the song says. But she’ll also call you out for it, as she’s cashing that check.

The accompanying video by Cedric Demers and Alexandre Normand feature DVTR’s frontperson insouciantly eating a buffet-style table of Chinese food while the song plays — with chopsticks and then a fork.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: CIVIC Shares Jangling and Nihilistic “The Fool”

Since their formation back in 2017, Melbourne-based punks CIVIC — Jim McCullough (vocals), Roland Hlvaka (bass), Lewis Hodgson (guitar) and their newest member Eli Sthapit (drums) — have developed a reputation for reimagining the reckless intensity of proto-punk for our era of seemingly unending and unceasing uncertainty and strife. 

The acclaimed Aussie outfit’s forthcoming third album, the Kirin J. Callinan-produced Chrome Dipped saw its official release today through ATO Records. Eager to step beyond the raw, unmistakably Australian punk rock sound of their first two albums, Chrome Dipped sees the band pushing into uncharted sonic terrain without scarfing the long-held fierce energy that has defined them. 

Thematically, the album touches upon loss and grief, following the death of Jim McCullough’s mother, as well as broader essentially reflection. In a larger sense, Chrome Dipped is about casting off old shells — both musically and emotionally — and finding meaning in the messiness of human life and evolution.

The band tapped Aussie singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kirin J. Callinan to produce Chrome Dipped. It was his idea to spend a week recording at Hobart, Tasmania‘s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), a far cry from the outback house in which the band laid down 2023’s Taken By Force. “We’ve always done our records DIY,” CIVIC’s Jim McCullough says. “This time we wanted to step up and make it sound as big as we could.”

“We kind of stuck to the rules a little bit earlier on like, do Australian punk rock properly and all that,” CIVIC’s Lewis Hodgson says. “But after touring around the world and seeing what all these other bands are up to it’s like, you can really do whatever the fuck you want. And so it’s fun to just kind of let go.”  He continues, “I hope people feel a little confused at first. Then a bit angry, and then feel good, and then interested, and then they feel like, ‘Oh, this is sick.’ That process exactly. I hope it’s a bit challenging.”

CIVIC also brought on a filmmaker to capture behind-the-scenes and in-studio footage, with plans for a longer documentary in the works. The film explores the physical and emotional place that inspired Chrome Dipped,  following the band through their journey of making the album. 

Last month, I wrote about album single “The Hogg,” a song named for its “disgusting sounding riff.” Fittingly, the song is a bruising ripper, anchored around a grimy, chugging riff and thunderous drumming paired with McCullough’s punchy delivery. While continuing to channel the grime, filth and fury of their previous work, “The Hogg” showcases a band pairing delicate and dreamy lyrical imagery with sinister, deeply unpleasant overtones and a subtle yet slick, studio polish.

As the band explained to Flood Magazine, the song is about “staring into the abyss and seeing nothing but its pure beauty. Surface level pleasure with sinister undertones. A porcelain dancer draped in flesh, pirouetting to the infinite beat. ‘The Hogg’ is my reality. ‘The Hogg’ is my destiny.” 

“The Fool,” Chrome Dipped‘s final pre-release single is a jangling and metallic, cretinous stomp of song that showcases the band’s melodic sensibility while retaining the punchy and feisty punk quality they’ve been known for. The Aussie quartet say “‘The Fool’ is a nihilistic death march about dreamers and idiots. A jangley [sic] punk song meant to provoke the senses. It recalls the story of the fool and what’s behind the 1000-yard stare.

Directed by Conor Mercury, the accompanying video for “The Fool” is a lush yet brooding and cinematically shot visual that’s set in a world that’s both harsh yet surreal, as we see struggling and desperate folks with odd, somewhat unnecessary super powers.

CIVIC is currently in the middle of a North American tour that includes a June 13, 2025 stop at TV Eye before heading to the UK and European Union. Check out the rest of the tour dates below. Tickets are available here. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Bee Blackwell Shares Yearning and Anthemic “CLAWS”

Bee Blackwell is a rising Austin-based singer/songwriter and musician, who back in 2023 began posting covers of her favorite emo and grunge song online, which helped to create a fanbase that revels in her brand of heartfelt and cathartic music. What began as covers, quickly accumulated into her debut EP, that year’s Calico, an effort that featured fan favorite “Blue.”

The past year or so have been very busy for Blackwell, she released three singles “Dumb,” “The Same” and “Signs.” She made her SXSW debut this past March, along with a handful of energetic live shows around Texas. And with a few months of free time, the rising Texan-based artist wrote and her recorded her highly-anticipated sophomore EP, Nine Lives. 

Slated for a June 30, 2025 release, Nine Lives EP reportedly serves as a sort of personal diary entry, exposing her struggles, emotional hardships and life goals. While seeing Blackwell at her most introspective and daring, taking creative risks while maintaining the vulnerability and honesty that has won her fans. Sonically, the EP’s material showcases her knack for clear and atmospheric guitar hooks, smooth calming grooves paired with her love of 90s grunge and 2000s emo. 

Earlier this month, I wrote about “LALALA.” Self-produced and recorded at Sonic Ranch Studio over a three-day, breakneck stint, the Austin-based artist’s latest single “LALALA” is a decidedly upbeat 120 Minutes-era MTV-like tune, anchored around fuzzy, distorted yet dreamy guitars, swelling synths, Blackwell’s ethereal delivery that builds up to perfectly 90s grunge inspired bridge. And at its core, the song showcases a songwriter, who seems to effortlessly pair catchy hooks with earnest, lived-in lyricism. 

“‘LALALA’ is a conversation between two people who haven’t spoken to each other in probably years, with all the weird boundaries and walls that have built up over the time lost,”  Blackwell says. “There’s a sense of familiarity, but you still don’t know if you can fully trust them, so you just make things up to fill silence or to seem interesting.”

The EP’s latest single “CLAWS” continues a run of 90s/120 Minutes MTV-inspired indie rock featuring fuzzy and distorted power chords paired with Blackwell’s yearning delivery and her unerring knack for big, rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses.

“’CLAWS’ is the struggle of being caught between wanting connection and fearing vulnerability,” Blackwell explains. “Expressing emotion is hard, being a control freak is even harder.”

The accompanying video sees Blackwell and her backing band paying homage to a 1993 live performance from shoegazers Swirlies.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: heavy wild Shares TrIppy Visual for Brooding “Wasteland”

Led by Wolfgang Harte, rising London-based lo-fi outfit heavy wild just released their highly-anticipated Paolo Ruiu-produced debut EP Death Dreams. 

Sonically, the EP sees the London-based lo-fi outfit blending elements of alternative rock, post-punk, garage rock, shoegaze, indie rock, lo-fi and grunge — and is a culmination of the project’s output date, as Harte explains: “I think having a running theme through any body of work is always important. I tend to write subconsciously and never really with a specific idea in mind so looking back through all these tracks and identifying what they’re really about has been interesting, discovering the themes that underpin my writing. There’s a couple of well-loved tracks on there but I’m excited for people to hear some new stuff too and see the direction it’s moving in.”

The EP’s first single “Wasteland” is a brooding whirlwind of a tune featuring shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars and distorted synths and driving rhythm section paired with remarkably catchy hooks and choruses and fuzzed out yet plaintive vocals. Sonically recalling a woozy mix of Interpol, Crocodiles, Grave Babies and others, the song explores themes of fractured relationships, arrests and suicide.

“Ultimately, it’s an optimistic track. It’s about going through dark times and finding a way to keep on going,” Harte explains. “I had a bassline [sic] that I was just playing on loop and I started writing, and this montage of stuff that had happened over the years was flooding my mind, and the energy of that bassline [sic] just kept dragging more stuff up. I guess it’s me sort of processing some of those situations and reflecting on it all. It’s about standing in the wreckage of life and saying fuck it… just gotta keep going.”

Harte cites Wavves, Beach Fossils, Small Black, Girls and Crocodiles as a big influence on him — and on the track. “On this track, I think I was really going back to that stuff that I loved as a teenager when I was first making music and trying to capture that frenetic sort of energy. I wanted the song to sound like it could fall apart at any moment,” Harte says.

The accompanying video is a mix of analog tape fuzz, kaleidoscopic filters and footage of the band in studio shot and edited in a way that evokes our uneasy, near apocalyptic moment.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Slumbering Sun Returns with Swooning “Together Forever”

Formed back in 2022, Austin-based outfit AND JOVM mainstays  Slumbering Sun — Monte Luna‘s James Clarke (vocals), Destroyer of Light‘s Keegan Kjeldsen (guitar) and Kelly “Penny” Turner, Temptress‘ Kelsey Wilson, and Monte Luna’s and Scorpion Child’s Garth Condit (bass) — is a Texas underground metal scene All-Star outfit that specializes in “music for crazy romantics,” as they’ve dubbed it, a melodic doom metal that incorporates elements of Celtic folk, grunge, prog rock and shoegaze. 

The Austin-based quintet’s full-length debut, 2023’s The Ever-Living Fire debuted at #20 on the Doom Charts. The band played their first show at SXSW’s Stoner Jam, then embarked on a series of regional tours before capping off the year with a set at Ripple Fest.

The band spent the bulk of last year, writing and recording their highly-anticipated sophomore effort, Starmony, which saw its official DSP and limited vinyl release earlier this month.

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about two of the album’s previously released singles:

  • “Midsommar Night’s Dream,” a track that begins with a gorgeous, pensive piano and string driven introduction, before quickly morphing into swooningly heartfelt and nostalgia-fueled dirge anchored around the sort of fuzzy power chords that would bring smiles to the faces of Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Neil Young, all while being arguably the most cinematic song they’ve released to date. 

  • “The Tower” a track that begins with a broodingly atmospheric introduction that quickly morphs into slow-burning, power chord-driven dirge with dexterous guitar solos. “The Tower” continues a run of material that’s soulful and cinematic while showcasing the band’s unerring knack for crafting a sound that recalls The Sword, Soundgarden and others. 

“Together Forever,” Starmony‘s latest single is a slow-burning ballad that sees the band pairing the swooning Romanticism of goth with the churning and fuzzy power chord-driven dirges of doom metal. The new single continues a run of material that’s perfectly suited for folks who love to hear anthemic songs with enormous power chords and rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses with beers raised in the air — but while also feeling something.

The accompanying video features footage shot over the past two years of touring across Texas and the rest of the Midwest, including the late night food food stops, the endless trees and white lines of the road, the small shows, and the pals you meet across the scene — with an uncanny precision.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Moscow’s The Diasonics Shares Mind-Bending “Oriole”

Formed back in 2019, Moscow-based instrumental soul quintet The Diasonics — Daniel Lutsenko (guitar), Kamil Gazizov (keys), Maksim Brusov (bass), Anton Moskvin (drums) and newest member Alexander Shingaling (percussion) — quickly gained cult status through […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: SWOLL Shares a Swaggering Homage to DC’s Puff Pieces

Led by Baltimore-based singer/songwriter and musician Matt Dowling, who is best known for his work playing bass in The Effects, Deleted Scenes, and Paperhaus, SWOLL originally formed as a studio collaboration with BLIGHT. Records founder and producer Ben Schurr.

The project’s 2018 self-titled, full-length debut was released to critical praise while establishing a sound anchored around brooding bass lines, minimalist textures and Dowling’s falsetto. Since then SWOLL has evolved into a full-fledged live band, featuring multi-instrumentalist Erik Sleight (drums) and lighting design by Zak Forrest.

Live , the band creates an immersive live performance that combines atmospheric visuals with a thunderous, genre-defying, synth-driven soundscape while exploring vulnerability and the human condition. Adding to a growing profile, the band has shared stages with Gang of Four, Moderat and JOVM mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers.

SWOLL’s third album AVOID ATTACH is slated for a September 26, 2025 release. The album was tacked by Dan Angel and Ben Schurr in Philadelphia, mixed by Alex Tebeleff in Los Angeles and mastered by Sarah Register in Brooklyn. Sonically, AVOID ATTACH reportedly sees the band further cementing a sound that meshes elements of live rock with electronic music and trap beats.

“I wanted to turn the psychological condition of avoidant attachment style into a verb that feels relevant right now,” SWOLL’s Matt Dowling says of AVOID ATTACH‘s thematic concerns. “Avoidant attachment style is perhaps best described by Kevin Barnes’ Of Montreal lyric ‘I need you here, and not here too.’ It’s a particularly modern condition that’s simultaneously psychological and physical. It sort of sounds bad and unhealthy (it is on the clinical edge of a disorder), but things like social media and AI, which are simply wildly popular modern tools, are particularly good places to ‘avoid attach.’ I also think things sort of feel overall bad and unhealthy in the world right now, but that could just be a coincidence, or my own projection.”

AVOID ATTACH‘s lead single “SCAR” features glitchy electronic pulse, skittering boom bap and an angular Gang of Four-like bass line as a dreamy and uneasy bed for Dowling’s punchily urgent delivery. The song manages to be brooding and yet dance floor friendly while anchored around lyrics that offer incisive social critique that eerily captures our weird, deadly, fucked up moment. The song also is a loving homage to the now-defunct Washington, DC-based band Puff Pieces, a descendant project of Antelope, and the social commentary of their 2016 effort, Bland in D.C.

“I directly take lyrics from Puff Pieces in this song,” Dowling says. “The two lyrics, which are also their song titles, are ‘Pointless People’ and ‘Women and Men with Guns.’ I think I went there simply because I felt like I was really echoing Puff Pieces sonically while writing the song. So I figured ‘why not take it all the way and use some Puff Pieces lyrics, provided I can get prior approval?’ (which I did, don’t worry!). I wrote the song probably two years ago, and now that it’s coming out, I’m like ‘whoa, this is timely.’ Puff Pieces were astoundingly accurate at predicting the future while writing songs from 2013-2016. The current time is simply a labored continuation of what they were concerned about while creating those songs. So ‘Scar’ is basically an homage to Puff Pieces’ astute ability to cut right to the center of it all with simple, dancey punk rock music.”

The accompanying video for “Scar” follows the band’s Dowling on a glitchy and fuzzy, analog, security footage-styled late night walk and studio footage — with a world-beating swagger.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Wants Shares Brooding and Anthemic “Data Tumor”

Formed back in 2017, New York-based trio The Wants — currently, founding membes Madison Velding-VanDam and Jason Gates along with the band’s newest member NightNight‘s Yasmeen Night — quickly carved out their own niche in experimental music’s outer reaches with their full-length debut, 2020’s Container, which was released to critical applause while quickly establishing a sound that draws from an eclectic array of influences across decades and genres, including Alan Vega, Korn, Hildur Guǒnadóttir, Bauhaus, Throbbing Gristle, and experimentation techno among others.

Container‘s success led to the then-duo’s successful tour of the UK and Europe, which was cut short as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But after returning back to the States, the band enlisted NightNight’s Yasmeen Night whose deft synth work has helped add an additional electronic sensibility to their post-punk aesthetic.

The trio’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Bastard is slated for a June 13, 2025 release through STTT. The album thematically explore disconnection in an age of endless and unceasing connection, pulsing with the tension between Velding-VanDam’s Midwestern roots and his present in NYC. That duality is manifest through the album’s material — organic instrumentation wrestle with electronic ghosts, while traditional song structures are dismantled and reassembled.

The album is also deeply influenced by personal tragedy: Velding-VanDam began writing the album’s material after learning that his father had died in his Michigan trailer, eight days before he was found. The aftermath of this discovery — hoarded belongings, towers of empty liquor bottles and oxycodone containers, grime-covered childhood photos — became the emotional backdrop for the album’s creation.” Bastard, both as an album and an experience, is an emotional purge—a meditation on isolation and loss,” The Wants’ Velding-VanDam explains. “The story of my father’s life and death loomed large as a backdrop of the writing process. I explored the darkest periods of my life, and the reality that we can all spiral into our own personal voids.”

Bastard‘s second and latest single “Data Tumor” serves as a bridge between their debut and the forthcoming sophomore album. Sonically recalling a synthesis of She Wants Revenge, Interpol and Suicide, “Data Tumor” is a brooding and uneasy song, delivered with a Kasabian-like swaggering bombast while showcasing the band’s unerring knack for arena rock friendly hooks paired with forcefully, propulsive rhythms and Velding-VanDam’s eerie delivery.

“‘Data Tumor’ inhabits the psychological push and pull of trying to assert individuality in a world intent on commodifying and distorting it,” explains Velding-VanDam. “The faceless collective of information and stimuli incentivizes the surrender of personal agency. Choices have to be made or they are made for you.”

“Many songs on Bastard embody a character or voice that is meant to observe and reflect an experience, but not necessarily make a judgement about it,” the band adds. “The resulting tone oscillates between earnest and acerbic, not quite serious but not joking, either.”

The accompanying video, which employs flashing strobe light, touches upon horror movie and true crime themes while turning them on its head. Who is being chased? Who is the victim?

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Smut Shares a “120 Minutes”-era MTV-like Power Ballad

After spending years in the Cincinnati DIY scene, Smut — currently Tay Roebuck (vocals), Andie Min (guitar), John Steiner (bass), Sam Ruschman (guitar) and Aidan O’Connor (drums) — caught the attention of Bayonet Records, who signed the band and released their sophomore album, 2022’s critically applauded How the Light Felt. The album brought the band to Chicago, a city with more room for their growing sound. 

But despite their early successes, they still faced the struggles of the modern working musician: instability, financial precarity, objectification and more. The band channeled a period of touring, personnel changes and personal upheavals into their third album, Tomorrow Comes Crashing. 

Slated for a June 27, 2025 release through Bayonet Records, Tomorrow Comes Crashing marks the band’s first album with O’Connor and Steiner and reportedly sees the band re-energized and trained on the limitless potential that comes with making music with people you love. 

The members of the band focused on capturing the big emotions that come with falling in love with music for the first time. The result is ten of arguably their most intense, bombastic and focused songs to date. 

The Chicago-based band recorded the album’s material “as live as they could,” alongside Momma‘s Aron Kobayashi Ritch in a Red Hook, Brooklyn-based studio over a breakneck 10-day session. Roebuck. Right before they went off to New York, Roebuck and Min got married, with the rest of the band by their side. 

“We have so much energy right now,” Smut’s Roebuck says. The recording sessions were a true labor of love — driving from Chicago with all their equipment, returning from 12 hour studio days to sleep on friends’ couches and floors, Roebuck completely blowing her voice by the end. Fittingly, the album is culmination of the band’s long-held DIY spirit — with the band creating a record that encompasses the intensity, moodiness and emotions of their journey so far. 

Last month, I wrote about album single “Syd Sweeney,” a track named for an inspired by the actor, that’s anchored around Siamese Dream-like power chords, rolling and propulsive drumming and enormous, beer-raised-high-in-the-air, shout-along worthy hooks and choruses paired with Roebuck’s rock goddess-like delivery before ending with a thrash metal-like coda that would make Billy Corgan smile. 

The song is about how profoundly strange it can be to be a woman, to be misunderstood by people, who don’t even know you — and probably will never know you. Roebuck says: “Women in entertainment are exceptionally talented, smart and beautiful, because they have to be. Sometimes they want to explore sexuality and vulnerability in their work. Then the pitchforks come out, how dare they be amazing AND sexual? You can only be one or the other! Why is talent and hard work seemingly erased once you’ve seen a woman naked?”

“It makes sense then to interpret it as a horror film, where we have the dividing tropes of final girls and sexy bimbos who die first for being too damn sexy,” Roebuck continues. “We put the sexy woman in the movie so we can see her be sexy and then kill her for it. It’s a lose-lose. Being a woman in art is to be objectified one way or the other. Success is the monster chasing you, waiting for you to be a little too sexy, knife ready.”

Tomorrow Comes Crashing‘s latest single “Touch & Go” is a full-throated, 120 Minutes MTV-era power ballad that showcases the band’s knack for pairing rousingly anthemic hooks with, big riffs and earnest, lived-in lyricism and songwriting.

“‘Touch & Go’ is a broken fantasy that was pretty directly inspired by ‘Time to Pretend’ by MGMT,” Smut’s Tay Roebuck explains. “The pursuit of success and the daydreams we have of ‘making it’ are pretty easily shattered once you put that fantasy in the modern world. The song ends with the realization that the best part of music will always be the community you build with it.” In the song’s last moments she sings, “The basement flooded / The coffee burned / The van is broken down / We all take turns / Touch and go.” 

Fittingly, the accompanying video looks and feels as though it could have aired during 120 Minutes.